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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26302060">Waking</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000bees/pseuds/1000bees'>1000bees</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Dream Sequence, Experimentation, Gen, Human Experimentation, Nibelheim Incident, Nightmare, he's fine tho dw</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:33:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>352</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26302060</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000bees/pseuds/1000bees</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Cloud remembers his time in the lab.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Waking</h2></a>
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    <p>Cloud wakes, and he is locked inside a tank, surrounded by a familiar green liquid. He's been here for years now, he's given up fighting, learned it won't get him anywhere. Learned to accept the feeling of drowning, the drifting in and out of consciousness, not knowing how much time has passed.<br/>
Someone comes to get him. They drain the liquid of his tank, and he can't decide if getting to breathe again is a relief, or just painful. They unlock his tank, and they catch him as he falls out, unable to support his own weight anymore. Unable to move at all. They drag him a few feet over the floor, before arranging him atop a steel table. He knows there are restraints there, he's seen them during his waking moments in his tank and previous stints on the board - but they don't bother using them on him. After all, why would they? It wasn't like he could resist.<br/>
He hears footsteps approaching, and though he can't turn his head to see who it is, he has a good idea of it. Then there's the sound of the scalpel being readied, and the press of cold steel against his skin, and he's gone, again.<br/>
When he comes to again, they're hoisting him back into the tank. He can feel a dull ache all over his body, and with what's left of his mind, he wonders what they did to him.<br/>
Then the tank is being filled again, that green liquid rising up, coming to hold him, support him in the way he was too weak to do himself. And it comes all the way up, and suddenly he's gasping for breath, struggling to take in the liquid again. The transition was always painful, both ways.<br/>
And his vision is fading again, he can feel himself succumbing. Losing what consciousness he has. With his last breath, he calls out, to someone, anyone, but no one seems to hear.</p><p>And then he wakes again.<br/>
For real, this time.</p><p>Shooting up, clutching his chest,<br/>
struggling to breathe.<br/>
Still feeling that liquid inside his lungs.</p>
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